Mark Scheme

Unit title Public Relations.

Textbook Exploring Public Relations.

Series March 2019.

Question 1 Answer Annotate Guidance

a) Define public relation Marks Syllabus reference:

[5] a) 5 marks – Full definition. Pages 90, 98.
3-4 marks – Makes most points.
BOD
1-2 marks – Makes some points. a. There is a lack of
0 mark – No creditable material. an agreed definition
NAQ
for the term.
b) Explain the difference between marketing b) 5 marks – Full definition. Reputation is the
and public relations. 3-4 marks – Makes most points. keyword. Please
[5] 1-2 marks – Makes some points. note that
0 mark – No creditable material. advertising is not
public relations, but
c) Explain five public relations activities. c) 5 x 2 marks - For each activity: marketing.
[10] 2 marks – full explanation (activity, explanation
and example).
1 mark – partial explanation (activity,
explanation / example). b. The American
0 mark – no creditable material. Marketing
Association defines
Content marketing as "the
a) According to the Chartered Institute of Public activity, set of
Relations, public relations is about reputation – institutions, and
the result of what you do, what you say and processes for
what others say about you. The Public Relations creating,
Society of America defines it as a strategic communicating,
communication process that builds mutually delivering, and
Question 1 Answer Annotate Guidance

beneficial relationships between organizations exchanging

and their publics. offerings that have
value for
customers, clients,
partners, and
society at large.".
Question 1 Answer Annotate Guidance
Question 1 Answer Annotate Guidance

b) Public relations are about influencing, engaging

and building a relationship with key
stakeholders in order to shape the public
perception of an organization. Marketing is
usually related to money/budget. While it is
easy to determine whether a marketing
campaign was successful or not comparing, for
example, how much was spent on a Pay Per
Click (PPC) campaign and how many products
were sold for people who clicked on those ads,
measuring the impact that an article talking
about the company in a tier 1 newspaper has is
usually subjective and can differ depending on
the methodology applied.

Activity Explanation Examples

 Internal Communicating In-house
communication with employees newsletter,
suggestion
boxes
Corporate PR Communicating Annual
on behalf of reports,
Question 1 Answer Annotate Guidance
whole conferences,
organisation, ethical
not goods or statements,
services visual
identity,
images
Media relations Communicating Press
with journalists, releases,
specialists, photocalls,
editors from video news
local, national, releases, off-
international the-record
and trade media briefings,
press events
Business to Communicating Exhibitions,
business with other trade events,
organisations newsletters
Public affairs Communicating Presentation
with opinion- s, briefings,
formers private
meetings,
public
speeches
Community Communicating Exhibitions,
Question 2 relations / with local
Answer presentation Annotate Guidance
corporate social community, s, letters,
a) Explain the difference between Marks
responsibility elected meetings, Syllabus reference:
stakeholders and publics. a. 4 x 2 marks:representatives, sports Page 146.
[4] 2 marks – Full definition.
headteachers, activities
BOD
1 mark – Makes
etc some points. Students might
Investor 0 mark – No creditable material.
Communicating Newsletters, answer both
NAQ
relations with financial briefings, questions in just
b) Using examples from a business of your b. 4 x 4 marks. For each stakeholder:
organisations events one. Please award
choice, define four stakeholders and their 4 marks – Stakeholder
/individuals + relationship + marks accordingly.
relationship with the organization. Strategic example. Identification Researching,
[16] communication
3 marks – Stakeholder
and analysisandof relationship
planning andor
situation, executing a
problem and campaign to
Question 2 Answer Annotate Guidance

example.
2 marks – Stakeholder or relationship or
example.
1 mark – Stakeholder.
0 mark – No creditable material.

Content
a) Stakeholders: groups that have a “stake” in an
organisation – i.e. those who are affected by or
can affect it. Stakeholders can have very loose
or intermittent relationships with an
organisation and can be passive.

Publics: publics are active: they have an issue, a

problem, or see opportunities and are
supportive of the organisation. They have much
closer engagement with it. Any stakeholder has
the potential to become a public.

b) Board of directors, governmental legislators

and regulators: have some control and
authority over the organization.

Employees, suppliers, consumers and retailers:

those that are essential to the function of the
organization.

Media, community, activists, and other special

interest groups: do not have frequent
interaction with the organisation but become
involved based on the actions of the
organisation.
 Question 3 Answer Annotate Guidance

a) Define the four levels of social Marks Syllabus reference:

responsibilities known as "Carroll’s a. 4 x 2 marks. For each level: Page 55, 159, 165.
Pyramid of CSR". 2 marks – Level + description.
BOD
[8] 1 mark – Level. a. CSR = corporate
0 mark – No creditable material. social responsibility.
NAQ
Carrol’s matrix is
b) Explain how you would promote externally b. 9-12 marks – CSR level + example + strategy + proposed as an
one of the CSRs levels of an organisation tactic. analytical tool, or
using a public relation tactic. 5-8 marks – CSR level + example + tactic. framework, to help
[12] 1-4 marks – CSR level + tactic. company managers
0 mark – No creditable material. make sense of their
ideas about what
Content the firm should be
a. doing economically,
 Philanthropic responsibilities: Be a good legally, ethically and
corporate citizen; contribute resources to the philanthropically,
Question 3 Answer Annotate Guidance

community. with respect to its

 Ethical responsibilities: Be ethical; obligation to defined stakeholder
do what is right, just and fair. groups.
 Legal responsibilities: Obey the law; law is
society’s codification of right and wrong.
 Economic responsibilities: Be profitable; the b. Tactics should be
foundation on which all the others are built. linked to, and flow
from, a strategy. A
b. Tactics: Press conferences, press releases, level of caution is
exclusives, features, reports, social media required when
posts, events, photo opportunities etc. planning the tactics:
the aim is to reach
the right people
within acceptable
costs and
timescales.
Sometimes that can
be done with a
single activity but
sometimes it
requires more than
one.
 Question 4 Answer Annotate Guidance

Describe five functionalities of social monitoring Marks Syllabus reference:

tools. 5 x 4 marks as follow: Page 178.
[20]  3-4 marks – Full understanding.
BOD
 1-2 marks – Functionalities might be inferred Students might use
from examples given. just the book’s
NAQ
 0 mark – No creditable material. examples
mentioned on the
Content left-hand side or
 Track blogs, forums, comments, tweets, online make their own
news, social networks and video for mentions analysis. Key-points
of the organisation, client and/or competitions. are in bold. Social
 Analyse these mentions and produce reports monitoring tools
that summarise the number of followers, are about getting
comment counts, tweet counts, retweets, public
replies, direct messages, comments and data/information
ratings. and organise them
 YouTube comments/ratings, media type and in a structured way
sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) that permits
 Segment this data by geography, media type analyse the
and language and identify links and sources, or presence (or lack)
segment by keywords. of an
 Question 4 Answer Annotate Guidance

 Present this information in various reporting organisation/brand

formats, including “dashboards” that on social channels.
summarise key data points. It is a way to
evaluate public
relation activities.

Question 5 Answer Annotate Guidance

Explain the factors that have influenced today's Marks Syllabus reference:
celebrity culture.  17-20 marks – Full definition. Page 520.
[20]  11-16 marks – Makes most points.
BOD
 7-10 marks – Makes some points.
 1-6 marks – Limited definition. NAQ
 0 mark – No creditable material.

Content
Chris Rojek, professor at the School of Arts and Social
Sciences of City at the University of London, says that
celebrity creation and culture is the consequence of the
democratisation of society, the decline in organised
religion and the commodification of everyday life. But
celebrity culture isn't new: it has just been taken to
new heights with changing media consumption,
globalised, interconnected cultural markets and the rise
of the global media brand of the masses - the Internet.
Murray Milner, professor emeritus of Sociology at the
University of Virginia, argues that a shrinking sense of
self, caused by globalised social networks, is also at
play. He maintains the larger and more complex the
social network, the more difficult visibility is and, as
 Question 5 Answer Annotate Guidance

social media expands, gaining visibility is an

accomplishment in itself.

Question 6 Answer Annotate Guidance

a) Analyse how crisis public relations Marks Syllabus reference:

management can be used to benefit a a) 9-10 marks – Full definition. Page 314, 315.
business.  6-8 marks – Makes most points.
BOD
[10]  4-5 marks – Makes some points. a. Crisis public
 1-3 marks – Limited definition. relations
NAQ
 0 mark – No creditable material. management
involves
b) In an early crisis communication stage, b) 2 marks for each item. interventions that
describe what a PR consultant should do occur throughout
and not do. Content the life cycle of a
[10] a. Crisis public relations management is a crisis. Students
collection of factors that are used to address might want to
the crisis and to lessen the damage a crisis define just crisis (the
might inflict on the organisation and its perception of an
stakeholders. unpredictable event
that threatens
b. Do: important
 Speak with one voice /consistent message. expectancies of
 Respond quickly. stakeholders and
 Be open and disclose information about the can seriously impact
crisis. an organisation’s
performance and
Do not: generate negative
Question 6 Answer Annotate Guidance

 Speculate on the cause of the crisis. outcomes) or the

 Say “no comment”. three-stage crisis life
cycle (pre-crisis:
actions taken prior
to occurrence of the
crisis; crisis event: a
trigger event
indicates a crisis has
begun; post-crisis:
actions taken after a
crisis is considered
to be over). Those
do not answer the
question.
 Question 7 Answer Annotate Guidance

Discuss the opportunities and challenges of Marks Syllabus reference:

dealing with trade press journalists/media.  17-20 marks – Full definition. Page 346, 348.
[20]  11-16 marks – Makes most points.
BOD
 7-10 marks – Makes some points.
 1-6 marks – Limited definition. NAQ
 0 mark – No creditable material.

Content
 Opportunities.
Managers and professionals tend to read the
titles specific to their trade or industry to keep
up to date with concepts, regulations,
innovative materials, legal and professional
aspects of the profession. Regular positive
editorial coverage acts as an efficient business
development tool when read by key decision
makers.
Journalists tend to be an informed and
potentially responsive audience. It is common
for editors of relatively small circulations
magazines to be frequent commentators on
television news programmes and in the
national dailies.

 Challenges.
Since journalists know about the topic, the PR
needs to be knowledgeable and show
Question 7 Answer Annotate Guidance

competence when dealing with trade

journalists. However, there are also cub
reporters or a journalist who has moved
recently to a particular title; they may still be
learning about the new subject area, perhaps
at the same time as the PR. Publications of this
nature can also be responsible for negative
comment and it can be somewhat frustrating
when publications are predictable and
frequently one-sided. A good relationship with
journalists, though, can help to offset this and
allow you the opportunity to respond to
potential negative coverage.
 Question 8 Answer Annotate Guidance

a) Explain the four elements of the SWOT Marks Syllabus reference:

technique. a) 4 x 2 marks. For each element: Pages 150, 151.
[8] 2 marks – Element + explanation.
BOD
1 mark – Element.
0 mark – No creditable material.
NAQ
b) Discuss how a SWOT analysis could benefit b) 9-12 marks – Full definition.
a PR strategy. 5-8 marks – Makes some points.
[12] 1-4 marks – Limited definition.
0 mark – No creditable material.

Content
a) The first two elements, strengths and
weaknesses, are particular to the organisation
and are usually within the organisation’s power
to address.
The third and fourth, opportunities and threats,
are generally external to the organisation and
can be derived from the wider analysis of the
macro and task environment and the selection
of those issues most relevant to it.

b) The SWOT analysis is used to look at the

organisation itself and those things over which
it has greater control. It helps to get to know
the organisation, to organise where the
communication plan should focus on and to
identify potential crises.